Days in the Sun: The Cutlass of Blue Jade
by yoo-hoo luver.wlegs
Summary: Elizabeth asks Jack to tell her in length of the blind and bloodthirsty Mistress Ching. First in a series of fics exploring the Nine Pirate Lords and their stories. slight spoilers to AWE but doesn't spoil a WHOLE lot. please read and review.
1. Prolouge

**Disclaimer: I don't own enough to buy penny candy and certainly don't own enough stake claim to Pirates of the Caribbean franchise but when I take the pirate spirit into account…grabs burlap sack and sets off to commandeer Jack (the man and the monkey)**

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Elizabeth Swann shifted her weight and felt as if she could melt into the cloth slippers she wore but thought better of it as Sri Sumbhajee, the heavily bearded pirate lord of the Indian Ocean stood up and said in a high falsetto voice, "And so, we shall go to war". Hissing a sigh of relief, Elizabeth shifted her weight back again knowing all eyes were on the former Hindu priest. All eyes save two. The pair of unseeing onyx eyes looked straight at her underneath harsh slanting eyebrows.

"Mistress Ching." Came the scratchy remark followed by the stench of rotting teeth and of damp monkey.

An uneasy feeling washed over Elizabeth as she turned to look at Barbosa. She was accustomed to standing in front of crowds. Her childhood had allotted her to overcome stage fright. Still, the gaze of the Chinese woman felt harsh and appraising as if all of the deeds and words Elizabeth ever did or spoke were on display for Mistress Ching's sanction. Govenor Swann's daughter met Mistress Ching's gaze and despite knowing that it would go unnoticed by the Chinese pirate, sent back a look that seemed to challenge.

The rum began to flow freely and soon, Elizabeth found herself standing alone in the same spot she had been when the votes were tallied. And oddly enough, Mistress Ching's gaze never wavered. The stench of one Jack had replaced by the other, more talkative Jack, a mix of rum and the sea air before a storm. Elizabeth did not have to turn to know Jack Sparrow had walked up behind her and was rather glad she didn't have to. Her blooming pirate instincts told her not to turn her back on the pirate lord of the Pacific Ocean.

With a flourish, Jack gave a small bow. "Pirate King," he addressed Elizabeth with a hint of a joke only he knew the punch line of in his twitchy eyes. "Don't we go places, darling."

Breaking her gaze with the blind pirate, Elizabeth cast an exasperated look at Jack, the unspoken question of what he was playing at lingering in the air. Her icy gaze did not yeild the answer she wanted however, for Jack's eyebrows shot up, indicating something had crossed his mind. He pointed to Ching and looked at Elizabeth square in the face.

"So, you caught the eyes of Mistress Ching…so to speak." It was unclear whether or not it was a statement or inquiry but doggedly, Jack continued. "Bugger. Better watch your neck, love."

"I always watch my back." Came the flat reply.

"Is that so?" Jack continued, flailing his hands a bit, "I said watch your neck for if you so foolishly decide to mind your back, you might one day come to find you no longer possess the attachment of the head to the shoulders to do the aforementioned watching of the backside."

Elizabeth sighed at the long-windedness of the man Tia Dalma referred to as "Mad Jack". How was he intoxicated so soon after the rum began making rounds? Captian Swann decided it was not worth the effort to analyze and asked him to degarble his response.

"Got a little itch for decapitating." Jack explained bluntly in a soft voice laden with the smell of rum on his breath. "Mistress Ching has an itchy sword hand. If I were you,…which would make you meself, making lover boy some lass in Tortuga, making Gibbs the monkey because that would be entertaining…I would watch yourself around her. Pirate King or not, love."

"What can a blind woman possibly do?" Elizabeth wondered.

"A lot more than ye think. No more or less than what Chevalle, Jocard, Sumbhajee, Villanueva or the Corsair will do. They might not look like they can hold a candle to Jones, but trust me, love, they've had their moments." He flashed her a misplaced smile, "Just because ye be our king doesn't mean all of us will prance to our death with out taking you down…savvy?"

"What do you know about Mistress Ching…about all of them, Jack?" Elizabeth half demanded about the remaining pirate lords. It was curious, half of her longed to hear just to gain a better understanding of the pirates. She had made it a point to hear every story about the famous pirates when she was a child. And old habits died hard. Yet there was a pull to know more for survival's sake. The last thing she wanted to do was misjudge the old lady, the sqeaky voiced monk, the Spaniard, fruity Frenchman, former slave, and the Turkish "heathen". If she did, Elizabeth would awake to a knife in her back and that was the last thing she-and the pirates- needed, the only person able to make the decision to fight to be found dead. No, Bacon always wrote that knowledge is the key.

Sparrow gave her a smile that tugged more to the left side than the right and with another flourish of his hands he leaned in closer, "What do you want to know about them?"

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**A/N: what do you think? Short but a perfect Prelude. Mistress Ching is first. Oh and perhaps I should mention there are slight spoilers…please review and tell me what you think!**


	2. Origin of the Legend

Elizabeth leaned in closer to hear Jack's soliloquy. Not only was it a precaution so they were not overheard, but also to simply hear. The rum had made several speedy rounds and already, the loud and slurred calls for more rum ran about the room. Obviously drunk now, one pirate, hidden by the masses, hollered out the sea shanty "The Drunken Sailor". Needless to say, it would be even louder and all the harder to hear with in the upcoming round…not to mention harder to keep Jack on subject with in the upcoming round. Seizing the bottle of rum from Jack's hands before he could tip the bottle, Elizabeth passed the bottle on swiftly.

Jack paused and looked at the Pirate King in astonishment. His eyebrows lowered to form his "deathly serious face" as he said venomously, "You're new at this pirate thing, love, so let me enlighten you. _Never_ take rum from me hands...savvy?"

"Stay on task, Jack." Elizabeth returned coolly as she shifted her weight onto the other leg as if inviting him to challenge her physically. "What do you know about Mistress Ching?"

Flipping a dreadlock over his right shoulder, Jack held a smug look on his face as he sauntered a few steps past her. "I don't feel much like talking. Dry throat, you know."

"Drink water." Elizabeth answered flatly with more of a smart remark than a suggestion. Her eyes narrowed dangerously as she contested again, "I will keep passing that bottle past you until you tell me all you know about the brethren."

It seemed that the threat caught his attention as Jack leaned against a wooden pillar. His gazed was affixed on the ceiling as he muttered, "Guan-Yin." Elizabeth's eyebrows shot up in confusion. She was unsure as to what Jack said and what he meant by it. "Beg pardon?"

"Mistress Ching…Mistress Ching the mistress by the name of Ching…she was born-or so I heard tell- in a small fishing town in some province whose name I can't remember. Wasn't born blind. Around eleven or so, she brought dishonor to the family by some odd way or another and went into the sisterhood."

"Sisterhood?"

Jack's gaze met Elizabeth's, it was certain that he was getting bored with all of this talk. "A whore, love." He explained bluntly, taking pleasure at the lady like cringed with scorn Elizabeth gave when he mentioned the term. She may have been a newly appointed pirate lord, but Elizabeth Swann was born and raised a lady. No matter what trappings she threw on, she was a high bred lady. "Killed a customer, not good for money and took every last stitch of clothing from him and escaped under his alias. Unfortunately that alias was the name of a man whose name was on not so well terms with a pirate by a certain famous name…savvy? Now as a wanted man…and woman she turned to the only place she knew for refuge."

"The sea."

"Nope, sorry. She went to the tea houses for refuge. Where else would she go, love, but the sea?" Jack replied loudly with wider hand gestures than before. Elizabeth gave him a look to kill, worried that they would be overheard…or at least overseen. She looked around, noticing that many of the pirates were jostling around and singing old sea shanties. It was obvious that they were drunk at this point and the possibility of being overheard was low. Relieved Elizabeth began to turn back to the infamous Captain Sparrow but once again, she saw Mistress Ching at the corner of her eye. The rum was sitting in her hands and her blind gaze was fixed on Elizabeth.

The Chinese pirate lord sensed the newly elected Pirate King turn back around to speak with Sparrow. The girl was a gangly thing at best and the hardened look in her eye reminded Ching of a face she lost long ago with her eyesight. Ever since she had gone blind, Mistress Ching had a heightened sense of hearing and after twenty years of depending on her ears to sense a person's intentions, she found that after hearing a few spoken words she could predict the speaker's appearance.

Because of this ability, the blind woman had picked up on the conversation and gave an inaudible sigh in her rum. Even in the overcrowded room Mistress Ching could feel the sea spray on her face. She had lived close to fifty years in this world (a feat that few could accomplish) and still she could still feel the fabric of her dress. She was young, too young to understand that her father was sending her off in hopes that she could attain a better life than he led.

She had had a small cloth sack slung over her back and the wind was blowing her hair out of its coil. Ching had stood there on the road that led to the docks taking in the sight of the little shack that she and her family had called home. Her mother walked out of the hut holding a bundle of rice balls she had prepared for the journey. In her mind's eye, the blind pirate lord could see her mother's eyes brimming with tears as she handed the bundle to her daughter who took it wordlessly. After years of analyzing that moment, a pang of regret always came when thinking of the plethora of words she could have said to her mother. Instead, the anger deep inside of her at that time had forced her to remain silent. Her mother had not hugged her but briefly touched Ching's check with a whisper of fingertips then with out a second glance, her mother had walked back into the hut.

From behind her mother stood her father, a tough looking type of man whose sternness had not left despite the circumstances of his child leaving. Ching recalled him reaching out to embrace her, an action to which she stood as stiff as a board. "This is for your own good, daughter." He had reassured her, "You may not understand now, but in time when the wisdom of age comes to you, you will come to realize you want your children to transcend your accomplishments. Just as our ancestors have before us, you will want your children to be better off than you. Thus is the wish of your mother and me." He had paused and looked into her eyes. Ching had given him a defiant look and in return she saw his heart break. Slowly he nodded his head as his strong eyes filled with tears.

He then gave her an ultimatum; a chance to throw her arms around him and have the tearful goodbye they ought to have had. "We do not have to part this way, child." He reached out to her and cupped her cheek in his hand like he had always done before when she was young. "Ching…daughter, please…"

Mistress Ching recalled looking into her father's eyes for a moment before promptly spitting in his eye. He had broken her heart when he and her mother had told her that at the tender age of eleven, she was to leave the safety and sureness of home to fend and feed herself. It was a practice many families had to do to make end's meet. But still, the pieces of the emotion of love and the notion of home laid at her feet. They would not be mended for a long time and at that present they were hardening at her feet.Spinning to face the ocean, she calmly had placed her large brimmed straw hat on her head and had headed for the ocean.

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**A/n: first of all I'd like to thank all of those who reviewed and for all those who read the prologue. As I said before, I wrote this on a whim and I'm equally glad that I've got positive response. So I sincerely thank you and hope that you give me your thoughts on this chap. Incedentally, Littledevildrummagirl tipped me off to some wiki articles detailing the real life pirates that the nine were based off of. If you'd like the link, just holler. Once again thanks and tell me what you think.**


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